Chapter 24: The Most Tragic One

“What are you saying? Honestly, I quite like you too!” Without Little White on his shoulder, Hinata wasn’t worried about being knocked away. He slung his arm around Yechen’s shoulder in a brotherly fashion as he spoke.

“By the way, where’s Little White? She’s not napping on your shoulder today!” Hinata had a good impression of Yechen, and after hearing him say he wanted to be friends, he kept his arm around Yechen as they walked, chatting. Suddenly, as if he’d just realized something, he asked Yechen.

“Little White’s not feeling well today, so I left her back in the dorm.” Yechen’s eyes dimmed with disappointment as he spoke of Little White.

As their conversation continued, the group found themselves inside a dimly lit, mechanized corridor. Watching the others attempt to open a door, Yechen quickly noticed something was off. Ruochen floated out from the Twin Illusion Swords and said, “It seems there’s some kind of advanced trap here. Do you sense it?”

“Hinata, could you please take your arm off my shoulder? I think there’s a trap here!” Yechen, unaccustomed to someone hanging on to him, spoke up.

“What! A trap?” Just then, everyone had entered, and the entrance was sealed by a metal door. Dazhan belatedly exclaimed, “Oh no, I forgot—this is a sealed trap!”

“How could you forget something so important?”

“How shallow!” Otonashi and Shiina chimed in with their complaints.

Suddenly, the lighting in the corridor flickered on. Yechen warned them again, “There’s something coming this way!”

Two devices, like laser emitters, projected transparent beams that moved through the center of the corridor. Everyone quickly dropped to the floor, narrowly avoiding them. Shiina tossed what looked like a smoke grenade toward the beams, and a cloud of smoke burst forth. Thanks to the particles, Otonashi and the others could now see a fine red line.

“What happens if you touch it?” Otonashi asked, uncertain of its effect.

“You’ll be sliced in two by the finest cutting technique!” came the reply, delivered with a hint of mockery. As soon as the words fell, the single beam split into two, one above and one below. The second wave began to move forward.

Once again, everyone dropped down, letting the beams pass overhead and beneath them. Yechen, however, easily navigated between the two beams and reached the end of the corridor. His hand was already gripping his sword’s hilt. With a crisp ring, a flash of silver light cut through, and the metal door ahead was effortlessly cleaved in two. Against the indestructible Twin Illusion Swords, even the reinforced gate was pitifully fragile.

“The door’s open! Come on through!” Yechen called out to those still lying on the ground, gesturing toward the opening large enough for someone to stoop through.

Shiina nimbly scrambled up and darted out in an instant. As she exited, the others were still collecting themselves when the third wave of beams formed, this time crisscrossing diagonally in a rectangular pattern. Yuri shouted, “Find your own way through!”

One by one, they dodged the beams and dashed out beneath the door, but only Matsushita, due to his size, failed to evade and was neatly sliced into several parts.

As everyone but Matsushita exited the corridor, Yuri commented with a cool detachment, “So Matsushita was the sacrifice this time? With that physique of his, there’s not much to be done. If he’d just dieted a bit, maybe it wouldn’t have come to this.”

Unfazed by the bloody scene, she pointed at the remains and said calmly, “His sacrifice isn’t my f